You're going to get that.
I could kick down the store.
What we do isn't necessarily completely legal.
It's in a bit of a grey area.
The main sort of aspect I'd say would be trespassing.
Why do we do it?
It's fun.
It's fun. It's something a bit different.
I think there's a lot of people who are interested.
Essentially, it's just fun. It's a hobby.
A hobby? Yeah.
That's how you tell me.
Urban exploration depends a bit on who's doing it, what it really is.
Some people do it just for the adrenaline rush of getting into places they're not meant to be.
Some people, like myself, do it to show people that wouldn't normally go into the building
that no one really else would go into.
I guess it's the exploration of man-made objects rather than just what you find in nature.
Some people who go and walk through the bush will come and walk through an abandoned train yard.
I'm drawn to the history of the space.
The fact that somebody used to live in this space, somebody used to work in this space.
What happened here?
I'm sort of drawn to the story of the location.
I don't know if there was someone here last week, last month, or no one's touched it for, you know, five years.
And just to come and see, you know, these spaces that were once readily used and just used all the time now to fall into disrepair.
Yeah. It's just really cool.
I feel like a fucking action movie or something.
The risks of urban exploration. Dying starters.
It's not really as bad as you'd imagine, but it just can be pretty sketchy.
There is risks everywhere, especially, you know, when you're taking leaps over gaps on rooftops, you know, three, four story drops.
A lot of the buildings are abandoned because they're not safe.
The, like, the safety aspect of it is half the reason that people who own this land or this property, you know, are kind of really against it.
Obviously, there's the, you know, the vandalism side, but it's also safe here because it's their responsibility when you own their property.
The other risk is getting arrested.
Because we aren't there causing, you know, harm to anything, they can check us.
We don't carry any spray cans or knives, weapons of any sort.
So I'm sure if you see someone with a big camera in their hands, I'm sure it'd be safe to assume.
They'd probably give you a chance.
The other risk to me is just other people being in a space.
They might be exploring, but they might be stripping the place.
They might be copper thieves. They might just be guys with baseball bats destroying the place.
A lot of people have said to me, like, I'm scared going into an abandoned building, like, I'm scared of ghosts.
And it's like, man, I'm more scared of living than I am of the dead.
Oh, yeah.
Alright, so if you are in quite a situation where you see other explorers or just other people in general,
the first rule is probably not to run because it just makes you look suspicious.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Just having a look as well?
Uh, no. We own it.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
That's why I'm curious why you're on that side of the page.
That's fair enough.
We approached the guy and we started talking. He ended up being the owner.
And we actually learned some really interesting stuff about the site.
So, I mean, that's what we wanted.
What the fuck is this actually?
I wonder if that's in, like, dollars or back in the end.
Yeah, that's crazy.
The urban exploration photography is very challenging.
You're often working in absolutely no light.
So, pitch black situations.
But other than that, it's just challenging and it's different.
It makes you look at photos differently.
It makes you think about lighting more.
Um, certainly with some of the photography that I've done,
particularly in, like, old homes in particular where there's furniture
and somebody's personal belongings that have been left behind.
People do have an emotional connection to those type of photos
because they tell a story.
The photos we tend to just stay for personal use,
but obviously we're sharing them on, like, social media, Facebook,
lookout, Tumblr.
Um, I think, yeah, I just like to catalog these sort of places before,
because a lot of these places get demolished.
I think that the heritage protection laws in South Australia
and even nationally are very, very lax.
I think money talks.
If a developer finds a place that they want to develop,
even if a place has got heritage listing,
it doesn't appear that it's that hard to overturn a heritage listing
to allow a developer to board those buildings
to build a fucking housing estate.
I think that's wrong.
And look, so many of the places I've been to aren't there anymore.
And potentially I was the last person inside that building
to capture its last moments.
I think that's significant.
I think there's a social significance to that.
I think that it raises an awareness in people that, look,
you know, time is fleeting and these places will be gone
and that history will be gone.
Essentially, the code behind Urban Exploring
is kind of generally don't trash things, don't ventilate it.
You know, you do have to respect these places.
For sure, yeah.
Because, you know, other people, other people like yourself
are going to come to these places.
And, you know, it's exciting if it doesn't look like
there's been anyone here, you know?
For most people there's not original set code
but there's general rule that people intend to follow
when it comes to breaking stuff, taking stuff,
just all that sort of stuff.
It's like the same as the National Park.
Take many pictures and leave many footprints.
